Life's Biggest Questions

For now there have been only 2 - What's the purpose of life?  & How do I achieve Happiness?

There is 1 more about which I will talk later, I realize these are definitely bull shit questions !!!! Yes I have been giving it too much importance trying to solve, thought, written, read tomes on this and now I think these are no questions to solve.. stop looking for a purpose and you will be happy, purpose is sought for happiness and happiness is a trick you can play with your mind... so if you are happy why need a purpose?

Few mind tricks for happiness- Arrogance, delusions, contentment, denial, narcissism, detachment, acceptance, etc.. there are many choose the one suits you... 

Rationalizations - Defense Mechanism

Philosophies, rationalization of what is the right way to do it are nothing but a trick mind plays to procrastinate. Justifying the state of no action...  We know it most of the times what feels right and what is right... right is as long as it does not hurt anyone..

We cleverly intellectually make fool of ourselves...

I have been guilty of this myself many times..  

The Wired World

I am just mesmerized by the kind of creativity, enterprise, intellect I get to witness through Internet. Recently, I have been surfing quite regularly through www.stumble.com and each time I do that, one or the other site bowls me over with what it contains or what is it about.. some of the top websites I stumbled upon in last couple of weeks:

www.picamemag.com/a4-pepercuts/  - A page which has some beautiful paper design by an artist

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2382OX/:1qQpgn3G7:UzMjJlQj/raining.fm/ - an app to make your own sound of rain, lightning :)

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2vHWiR/:Q.nRok5-:WLbPw_wv/bookshelfporn.com/?63c2cf08/ - some beautiful designs of book shelfs.. they call it bookshelf porn:)

www.strandbeest.com/  - this artist has created creatures out of plastic tubes  - this is just mindblowing

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/27cnNh/:7VoCJN2:SKVCSegc/weavesilk.com/ - this app helps you create your own designs

http://www.good.is/ - a social network place for people who are doing good in community, an excellent resource for people doing good or wanting to connect with good

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/6rKe8o/:t2V.AA9C:SE0D23oz/users.design.ucla.edu/~datadreamer/2daudio/projecttwo.swf/ - an application to make your own music - add a little bass, lead and have ur music..

Question: Desire or Responsibility?

What is that we need to choose when living life-  desire or responsibility? 

The one who favour desire give the logic that desire is superior as life is short live it, who knows what will happen in future. Responsibility is a creation of mind and each is responsible for self

The one who favour responsibility say defer desire or allow only once responsibility is taken care of, after all we are no island and we would have died if others had not done their due. We owe to the world..

What is it?

Thoughts or there is more to it #Vipassana

I was having a conversation yesterday with someone on Vipassana.. A friend of mine had recommended Vipassana to another friend which she thought could help her friend, and I was trying to answer the probing questions asked, the questions which are trying to evaluate if it will be worth it or not..

I always find these conversations difficult as explaining the rationale is not an easy task, the context is understood only if there is some foundation for it and further evaluation can make make you defensive. Anyhow I answered what I could but what struck me is - to problems we think thoughts are the solution, positive thoughts and logical answers . Meditation as a concept, silence which we have to follow in the 10 days of Vipassana is often liked as people conclude it will give a lot of time for introspection, give right logical answers to all the problems. Unfortunately meditation is not about introspection; it goes to the root of how we become. The root of what makes us, it is not thoughts, it is not feelings these are all outcomes. The root is a pattern of dependencies we have through our daily interaction of life, through the unique experiences we have had and the reactions we have stored. Each experience from typing on keyboard to sitting for a long time on chair, to love, to hurt, to loss.. millions of minute experiences which we undergo daily. The root we are unaware of, it helps get in touch with it and work on it, bring it under control to a desired outcome. 

Thoughts as a solution have become popular but are not powerful, they are just a small fraction of what can bring in control and happiness. If thoughts were powerful, reading one book alone could have made us all wise. 

Interestingly, neuroscience is also concluding there is much beyond mind and its thoughts.. do go through the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q06YIWCR2Js

And if you wish to know more about Vipassana - http://www.dhamma.org

Wisdom Tweet # 6 .. No Regrets

Few weeks back I read an article in times of India on the most common regrets people tend to have;  Yesterday I browsed an article on Internet on the top 10 regrets dying people have, it was collected through the  nurses...

These articles hint at what you must do so that you don't have to regret in life, it tries to give you a direction through generalizations of what people in general miss and therefore you should not. 

But I was wondering is regretting past serve any good? It makes you feel small, sad for missing out, robbing us of being happy in the present, happiness being the goal and it being the mental state of being, should we not just not regret and focus on the present and do what makes us happy...

Does regret do any good?